it's better to ask the questions with different topics as we can set correct tags on them which will make easier to find the needed topic, and we can provide those topics to other users as an answer.

Posted by: @starman71

2) Another issue is that new registration emails to new users show a link to add their password but it's not a hot link. How can we assure it shows up as a clickable link in their email instead of just the link text they have to copy and paste to make work?

Go to Dashboard > Forums > Settings > Emails Tab Copy "New User Registration Email for user" and "Reset Password Emails" emails content and provide the text.

Posted by: @starman71

I tried to set up Facebook via all their API BS and it ended up wanting to share the posts to my own personal page rather than the group page that is the same name as my site, even though I put the group page URL in the place that says redirect to this page. So not sure what I am doing wrong

Posted by: @verek

IIRC the share to FB functionality is not enabled with WPforo's API implementation, only FB login/registration. Maybe @Chris can clarify. In any event I don't use FB so do not definitively know.

In the new Facebook tab where you share the post, above your avatar you can see Share to News Feed or Story option, press on it, select Share in a Group, select the group...

Posted by: @starman71

a suggestion about the notification bell at the top of the page. Seems like it's backwards. It goes dark when you have something to see there and is brighter when there's nothing (at least in our color scheme). Seems like it should be the opposite. Dark when you have nothing and bright and maybe the bell is slightly moving when you have a msg there. Just a suggestion. LMK if this is an easy change.

Use this CSS code to customize the notification Bell colors by your needs:

#wpforo #wpforo-wrap .wpf-bar-right .wpf-alerts.wpf-new i {
    color: #ff812d;
}
#wpforo #wpforo-wrap .wpf-bar-right .wpf-alerts.wpf-new i:hover {
    color: #eab08a;
}
#wpforo #wpforo-wrap .wpf-bar-right .wpf-alerts i {
    color: #ee0e0e;
}
#wpforo #wpforo-wrap .wpf-bar-right .wpf-alerts i:hover {
    color: #0e23ee;
}

#wpforo #wpforo-wrap .wpf-bar-right .wpf-alerts-count {
    color: #ff812d;
}

IIRC the share to FB functionality is not enabled with WPforo's API implementation, only FB login/registration. Maybe @Chris can clarify. In any event I don't use FB so do not definitively know.

If you do not want to use any site protection then you can use Sofy's code here https://wpforo.com/community/postid/51358/ via the Code Snippets plugin. to limit signatures and about me spam.

For displaying members online in the forum statistics block you will need this plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-useronline/. 

In the plugin settings you should have code similar to this: 

Useronline Templates:
<a href="%PAGE_URL%"><strong>%USERS%</strong>&nbsp; Online</a>

User(s) Browsing Site: (choose whatever separators you prefer - examples  • or |)
Members: &nbsp;<strong>%MEMBER_NAMES%%GUESTS_SEPARATOR%%GUESTS%%BOTS_SEPARATOR%%BOTS%</strong>

To display this info in your Forum Statistics block  you would need to edit this file /wp-content/plugins/wpforo/wpf-themes/classic/footer.php. As noted in my previous post this would have to be done every time the WPforo is version updated. If you are not comfortable with editing PHP files then do not attempt this, this is for advanced site managers only. Make a backup of footer.php in case you mess up.

Near the bottom of the file look for 

<span><i class="fas fa-lock wpfcl-1"></i> <?php wpforo_phrase('Closed') ?></span><p>

 Directly beneath that edit in the following code and save:

<p class=usersonline><div class="wpf-user-online"><div class="wpf-user-online-stat"><i class="userstat fas fa-users"></i><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; color: #777777"> Members and visitors online now :</span></div><div><?php if (function_exists ('users_online')): ?> <?php users_online () ; ?><?php endif; ?> <?php if (function_exists ('get_users_browsing_site')): ?> <?php echo get_users_browsing_site () ; ?><?php endif; ?> </p></div>

 The font weight and colour you should change to suit your board style.

And lastly some CSS for final styling of the block:

/* Useronline Styling */
#wpforo-stat-body > div.wpforo-stat-table > div.wpf-row.wpf-last-info > div > div.wpf-user-online-stat {border-top: 1px solid #e6e6e6!important; margin-top: 7px!important;padding-top: 5px!important;}

The end result should look similar to this:

1) How do we make it so the names of people currently on the forum show up in the forum statistics area which shows the other data like numbers of users on line, posts, etc? We'd like to see the users names and guests that are currently browsing the forums display in real time there. Please let me know how to do this.

You can do this with a plugin and a file edit + plugin formatting and perhaps some css. You will have to edit said file every time after WPforo updates.

3) How to limit the characters in the About Me field of a user's profile? We've had spam attempts by real people that pasted in a pages of text about their gambling site there. Limiting it to like 300 characters would be helpful.

I don't believe in limiting standard features for your legitimate members; you should rather use some proper security to prevent the human spammers (and bots) from registering in the first place. I use site security at server level on my sites and almost nothing slips through. But, there are one or two WP plugins that do a decent job whilst not adding too much load to your site. Example: https://wordpress.org/plugins/zero-spam/ (Anything that calls the Stop Forum Spam database is generally effective). 

4) How do we make the social media links show up in the top line of the posts like they do here on your forum instead of a share symbol that has to be clicked on first to display them and how do we edit them to the social media places we desire to display there and share to?

Dashboard > Forums > Settings > API's (Social Network) > Active Share Buttons > set whichever buttons to active you want.

2) Another issue is that new registration emails to new users show a link to add their password but it's not a hot link. How can we assure it shows up as a clickable link in their email instead of just the link text they have to copy and paste to make work?

3) How to limit the characters in the About Me field of a user's profile? We've had spam attempts by real people that pasted in a pages of text about their gambling site there. Limiting it to like 300 characters would be helpful.

4) How do we make the social media links show up in the top line of the posts like they do here on your forum instead of a share symbol that has to be clicked on first to display them and how do we edit them to the social media places we desire to display there and share to?

Also, 5) a suggestion about the notification bell at the top of the page. Seems like it's backwards. It goes dark when you have something to see there and is brighter when there's nothing (at least in our color scheme). Seems like it should be the opposite. Dark when you have nothing and bright and maybe the bell is slightly moving when you have a msg there. Just a suggestion. LMK if this is an easy change.

Many thanks for all your amazing help here and apologies for so many questions in one post but I thought this would be better than starting five different threads! Love you guys! 👍